Business as usual should never be what our society should strive for. Yet, even after having a reactionary TV star in office for four whole years, the Democratic party decided that it would be in the peoples’ best interest to put forward a candidate that is all talk, and no game.

During the election, many progressives warned that the general population of run-of-the-mill, Democratic voters would fight for Biden to take the presidency, and then completely ignore politics for the remainder of his term (or go “back to brunch” in the words of Streamer Hasan Piker). And this does not seem very far off. Supposedly left-wing media outlets don’t make nearly as much of a buzz about Biden’s bad decisions as they did with Trump’s.

Don’t get me wrong, Trump was a truly embarrassing and shameful part of American history. It still seems surreal that he was actually the president for a solid portion of my life. But, the issue is that Biden doesn’t seem to be doing a whole lot better. He poses as a progressive by diversifying his cabinet and claiming that his policies are “unprecedented,” but he does not pose a real threat to the right-wing establishment at all.

And don’t even get me started on all of the neolibs who cry, “We need to reach across the aisle! We need to come together! It’s not the divided states of America!!!” When right-wing policies (perpetuated by both Republicans and Democrats) have been actively harming the lives of millions of people for nearly a century (see: the military-industrial complex), maybe it’s time to rethink the validity of bipartisanship.

But it isn’t like I expected anything more out of the man. He, and the rest of his party, have been kneeling before conservatives for decades. Just ask them about their positions on America’s active participation in neocolonialism, tax cuts for the wealthy, and outright denial of humans’ basic right to healthcare.

I have a very, very slight inkling of hope that my generation will work to undo some of the atrocious actions that the U.S. has committed. I hope that our society can become more equitable, and that everyone is able to obtain basic necessities as a right, not a privilege. And I hope that someday we can maybe… not base our entire economy off of the exploited labor of workers in the Global South? Because not one of the old, decrepit corporate politicians in office right now seems to even be thinking about any of that.